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TURF; Pet Therapy Sets Landlords Howling

IAN NETUPSKY, a 36-year-old bond salesman, recently drove up to his home in Huntington Station, N.Y., to find a knot of curious neighbors standing outside. Up went Mr. Netupsky's anxiety level -- and down went his black Labrador, Quinn, coaxed quickly into lying low to avoid detection.

''I think it was in the back seat,'' one woman said outside the gray and green town house as Mr. Netupsky pulled his Volvo into the safety of the garage. ''I couldn't quite see inside,'' another man said.

Indoors, the drawn living room blinds kept the neighbors from seeing Quinn stretched out on the floor. The whole exercise, Mr. Netupsky said, was ''pathetic.''

Quinn is more than a best friend to Mr. Netupsky, who suffers from depression and insomnia. Without her, he said, ''I become a miserable human being in every way that you can think of.''

But to his neighbors, Quinn, who weighs 70 pounds, is a flagrant violation of community rules barring animals that weigh more than 45. Last year, the co-op board ordered Mr. Netupsky to remove his dog from the community, and he agreed to put $7,400 in escrow to cover $100-a-day fines should Quinn be discovered there. ''I get so angry,'' Mr. Netupsky said. ''I just want to be left alone.''

Mr. Netupsky, who expects a legal hearing on his case next month, is part of a growing group of homeowners and renters who argue that they should be able to keep their pets even if community or building rules forbid them. Lawyers have argued that under 1988 amendments to the federal Fair Housing Act, landlords and co-op boards can be forced to allow tenants with mental or emotional disabilities to keep pets that act as ''emotional support animals.''

''People are coming out of the closet with their emotional difficulties,'' Maddy Tarnofsky, a New York lawyer who has handled nearly 40 such cases since 2000, said. ''The idea of an emotional support animal is no longer laughable.''

To establish disability, tenants must show that their conditions impair a ''major life activity.'' Most landlords understand guide dogs for the blind or hearing dogs for the deaf. What is harder for some to accept is that people with mental disabilities -- handicaps that aren't visible to the naked eye -- may also keep companion animals in buildings that normally wouldn't allow pets.

For now, the bulk of the cases involve people with serious mental conditions. But landlords and co-op boards wonder whether some pet owners will claim disabilities simply to circumvent stringent rules barring animals. Particularly in a city like New York, where many residents are still coping with the stress of the Sept. 11 attacks, building owners fear that current cases may open the door to a flood of requests.

''The question is, Where do you draw the line?'' said Robert Braverman, a lawyer who has represented seven New York co-op and condo boards in animal-related cases since 2000. He said that in one recent case at a Brooklyn co-op, he was skeptical of the tenant's claim that her emotional health would be damaged if the board forced her to get rid of her dog.

''My feeling is that if you have a dog, no matter what your emotional condition may be, it's going to be sad to get rid of the animal,'' Mr. Braverman said.

The rise in animal-related disputes seems to be driven in part by the growing acceptance of depression as a disability, coupled with new scientific evidence linking animals to reductions in stress and in feelings of isolation, and even to an increased likelihood of living longer.

The federal Transportation Department last month clarified its guidelines governing pets on airplanes. Now, along with animals that help guide the blind and the deaf, those that give emotional support are allowed to accompany passengers who have letters from their doctors or therapists.

Still, ''to say that somebody with a disability should have a different application of a rule is hard for a lot of people to swallow,'' said Michael Allen, a senior staff lawyer at the Judge David L. Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law in Washington. ''It takes a while for a society to catch up with a progressive civil rights law.''

Robert Tierman, a New York lawyer who represents co-op and condo boards, expresses a fear shared by many co-op officials and landlords. ''If it's just a matter of a shrink saying the patient suffers from mild depression,'' he said, ''the co-op would say that doesn't constitute a disability under any of the applicable laws. If we grant an exemption, it would virtually open the door wide.''

Ms. Tarnofsky said she would not go to bat for every tenant who is facing a tough patch and loves his Lab. Breaking up with a boyfriend or losing a job ''is not enough,'' she said, adding, ''I tell people it should be more than everyday garden-variety walking-around-New York depression.''

The co-op board at the 100-unit town house community where Mr. Netupsky and his wife, Allison, live has in fact questioned whether he is as ill as he says, though a letter from Mr. Netupsky's therapist stated that Quinn is necessary for him ''to maintain a sense of emotional stability.''

Marvin F. Milich, a lawyer for the board, wrote to the State Division of Human Rights, which is handling the case, that Mr. Netupsky had failed to establish the existence of an illness requiring a pet as a cure.

Last year, after signing an agreement with the co-op board, Mr. Netupsky did send Quinn to a friend's house for several months. Last week, Karen Copeland, a Manhattan lawyer who represents Mr. Netupsky, said she received a letter from Mr. Milich saying that the board would claim the entire $7,400 from escrow because board members said they had seen Quinn in Mr. Netupsky's unit.

Mr. Milich did not return calls seeking comment. Andrew Crabtree, another lawyer for the board, declined to comment. Kenneth Murena and Stephen Scialdone, president and secretary of the co-op board, did not return calls for comment.

Mr. Netupsky said he has been treated by a therapist since 1998, and has suffered severe sleeping disorders and depression since his mother died of breast cancer in 1995, followed by the death of his father in 1998. He is taking medication for insomnia and anxiety.

His relationship with Quinn is undeniably intense. He has a tattoo of the dog on his back. Quinn provides ''unconditional love that I don't see or get anywhere else,'' Mr. Netupsky said. His wife admits that she is sometimes jealous. ''I've never met anyone who has felt this way about their dog and is so emotionally attached,'' she said. ''When she's not there, he's depressed and very difficult to live with.''

In Fairfield, Conn., Sharon Cregeen, a lawyer, said her cases involving emotional support pets have more than doubled over three years. And in Springfield, Vt., Meris Bergquist, a staff lawyer at Vermont Legal Aid, said she has had eight such cases in the past year, up from only one case two years ago.

IN addition to filing lawsuits, tenants or homeowners can submit complaints to the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development. David Enzel, a deputy assistant secretary in the department's fair housing office, said, ''We do get a steady stream of these cases, whereas we didn't have nearly as many five or six years ago.''

In New York, where brokers say only 1 in 10 buildings admits pets, six cases were filed with the State Division of Human Rights last year. (In 1998, there were none.) This month, the New York City Bar Association offered an evening course that included material on emotional support animals.

Ms. Copeland, who represents tenants, said 95 percent of the dozens of cases she has handled since 1995 have been settled before trial, usually in the tenants' favor. But Mr. Braverman, the lawyer who has represented co-op and condo boards, said that is often because tenants have to show ''very little evidence'' of illness and ''the owner does not have a real opportunity to determine the veracity of the allegations.''

Other landlords and co-op officials agree. ''It's so ephemeral,'' said Stephen Chesnoff, board president at a large Upper East Side co-op. ''What is emotional need?'' Last year, the board dropped an eviction case against a woman with a dog, concluding that a court fight would be too expensive once she produced letters from her doctors.

Dr. Ricardo Castaneda, director of inpatient psychiatry at Bellevue Hospital Center, agreed that it is difficult to prove that someone needs a dog to stay well. But he said one private patient he treated for depression, a 56-year-old musician and dog-walker named Jay Ward, improved after adopting Rocky, a 7-year-old fluffy white bichon frisé.

''Could a different antidepressant have done the same?'' Dr. Castaneda asked. ''Perhaps. But if he were to be separated from this dog, he would be at risk of a reoccurrence of his depression.''

When Mr. Ward called his landlord to say he intended to keep Rocky in the down-at-the-heels building on Riverside Drive where he has lived for 27 years, the owner threatened to evict him. He wrote the landlord explaining his condition, including a letter from Dr. Castaneda. Mr. Ward said he has not heard from his landlord since.

Nicholas Brusco, a lawyer for Mr. Ward's landlord, Arthur Yanni Realty in Yonkers, declined to comment. Calls to Arthur Yanni were not returned.

While Mr. Ward's lawyer said she believes he will be able to stay in his apartment, for which he pays less than $600 a month, other pet owners have left their buildings. Elicia, 33, who asked that her last name be withheld because of an unrelated court case, moved in April from the Upper East Side apartment where she had lived for 12 years so she could keep McCoy, her 2-year-old Bernese mountain dog.

She said she suffers from an autoimmune disease as well as seizures and has been treated by two therapists since 1999.

Nearly two years ago, her landlord took her to housing court for violating the building's no-pets rule. Although Elicia said many tenants in the building owned animals, she agreed to remove the dog. The landlord later sued her for legal costs, and the court ordered her to pay $10,500.

Then last October, Elicia said, she was raped. In April, she moved to another Midtown building and was reunited with McCoy. The 112-pound dog sleeps in her bed. Glossy shots of woman and dog decorate the spacious one-bedroom apartment.

Now, with a case pending before the State Division of Human Rights, Elicia said she hopes she will be compensated for ''the loss of my home'' and be relieved of the $10,500 judgment. (Her former landlord, Vincent Q. Giffuni, did not return calls, and his lawyer, Ida Greer, declined to comment.)

Elicia said she didn't regret fighting for her dog. ''He saved my life,'' she said.